Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. While I was absolutely captivated by the gorgeous cover image, I had trouble getting into the book. It felt quite disjointed and I wasn’t able to connect with the characters.

I've come back to this book on so many occasions with the idea of finishing it and finally, I've managed it. I didn't dislike it but it hasn't drawn my imagination quite the way I thought it might. I can see a lot of people really rate it, which only seems to confirm the issue is me but we can't always like all the same things.

One day I will borrow this book from the library and give it another try because I am very intrigued by it, but unfortunately the formatting of the eARC I received made it really difficult to read which in turn has meant I've procrastinated and kept putting it off. I do love the sound of this one, though, and I liked what I was able to read so I'll definitely try it again in future!

Fantastical, rare, and original, Folk is an eerie and moving tale that feels like a folk story, with a modern sensibility. Unusual in its blending of folklore with contemporary writing, it reminded me of Daisy Johnson's Everything Under. Unsettling and dreamlike.

Myth, magic and islands; all things I love. I really, really wanted to love this book. I enjoyed Folk but didn’t love it. Folk tells the stories of a group of people growing up on a small island, we follow them from childhood to old age. Along the way we learn of myths, folktales and hard lives. Folk is fine book, with an excellent cover.

I know the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” but this cover is stunning and it caught my eye straight away leading me to find this little treasure of a book and what’s even better is that the book is just as stunning on the inside as it is outside.

It isn’t very often we come across a truly unique book but that is just what I found when I came across this book.

Neverness, an isolated island full of magic and folklore, where each character’s life is inextricably entwined with the island’s mythology in the forms of family traditions, long-buried secrets or ancient legends.

Every chapter is told by a different character each with their own stories that read like a collection of short stories that all interwoven. Sometimes one character is a child in one story, and then as an adult in another. Some of the earlier stories that have been read then show themselves later in other stories, as rumours in some or legends in others. With the beginning and the end of the book being connected it brings the whole magical island of Neverness and its occupants together perfectly.

Zoe Gilbert has created her own magical and often haunting world blending folklore, fairy tales and magical realism into an absolutely enchanting debut novel.

If you are a lover of mythology, fairy tales and folklore then this book is for you.

A stunning book both inside and out – simply magical!

Folk is out now in Hardback and e-book format and the paperback edition will be released on February 7, 2019.

A massive thank you to the author Zoe Gilbert, publishers Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/folk-by-zoe-gilbert/

A truly remarkable book, it is steeped in magic! I loved it! It is a novel that can be read as a series of short stories about the inhabitants of Neverness, a place full of mystery and folklore. This is rich, atmospheric magical realism at its very best. I couldn't get enough of it, I read it in one sitting and I'm recommending it to everyone!

I enjoyed this collection of short stories a lot, and Autumn was definitely the right time of year to read them! From the very first tale 'Prick Song', which set the collection up nicely, I knew exactly what kind of book I was going to be reading. 'Folk' is the perfect title, as you'll see a lot of local folklore and myth mixed in with the every day going-ons of village/island life. The setting, Neverness, is actually based on the Isle of Man which I greatly appreciated (being British).

So my favourite stories had the aforementioned nods to the supernatural in them - seldom-seen water bulls, a maternal interpretation of the Selkies, a charming but dangerous Jack Frost and the enigmatic but deeply sought after Gorse Mother. Even the stories that didn't contain magical creatures had this haunting, spiritual tone about them that interweaved gorgeously with Gilbert's lyrical style and I adored the world that she built as a result. Especially as the characters are connected and we get to see a whole generation of Neverness's history go by. Favourite stories included 'Long Have I Lain Beside The Water', 'Swirling Cleft' and 'Verlyn's Blessing'.

While the writing was beautiful, it meant continuous re-reading to make sure I'd understood what I was reading fully. I adored 'Fishskin, Hareskin' thanks to it's commentary on postpartum depression but also found it a little difficult to follow. A couple of the stories I found were not so engaging - 'Kite' and 'Turning' being two of these, but each story had an issue that it covered and I think this happens in any short story collection. It's rare to enjoy EVERY one. My overall thoughts were that I was far more impressed with these than I thought I would be, and I particularly enjoyed the haunting, isolated setting as it fed the magic and sense of 'real' nicely.

Initially I loved this book and thought the setting a characters were brilliant but as I read on it felt more like a collection of short stories than a novel. The chapters didn't quite flow together and it all felt a little stilted. Nevertheless an interesting debut novel with some great world building - I will read more from this author.

I absolutely adored this book. The stories were dark and delicious and I was hooked from the very first few lines. I enjoyed how the stories were only very loosely connected but that there was a definite sense of place - the island felt very real in its strange landscapes and traditions. Would highly recommend.

Interesting stories of the sea, interlinked and magical. Not for everyone or an easy read but worthwhile

Folk is a collection of connected short stories set in the isolated island village of Neverness. The stories of the lives of the islanders are connected, each chapter told from the point of view of a different character. They interleave and overlap creating a tapestry of magical and mysterious tales, the most prevalent being about family, love and loss.

The stories are reminiscent of fairy tales and Classical myths, as well as folklore and urban legends. A water bull kidnaps a young girl and hides her in his lair; a baby is born with a wing for an arm: Folk is inventive and captivating, and an eerie hum of enchantment lies behind the narrative. The island and its inhabitants are brought to life by a rich vocabulary and a visceral attack on the senses: smells of smoked fish and oxhides, burned porridge and chimney soot, rainy boots and muddy flagstones, sodden thatch. The book is dripping with sensation; with real life and dark magic, superstition and foreboding.

There is so much I liked about this book: the pulsing presence of magical realism; the nod to tradition and to ritual and practice. I loved how the book came to life owing to a beautifully vibrant prose, vivid imagery and stunning imagination, and how each story reads almost like a spell that leaves you with the feeling that Neverness is a place you visited in a dream.

The structure of the novel is complex and choppy, and this will confuse and frustrate some readers. It is quite disjointed and this can sometimes make you feel less for the characters as you meet and leave them behind so carelessly. As a result, I don't feel the characters studies were as well developed as they could be, leaving me feeling a lack of engagement. There was a definite lack of an emotional connection here which, sadly, left me a little disappointed.

This is certainly a unique and haunting debut but one that, ultimately, won't stay with me. Stunning cover, though.

Soooooo good! Really reminded me in some ways of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire.

I struggled with this book, which made me sad because I loved he idea of it. Perhaps it just wasn't the right book at the right time for me and I'll come back to it, because I still like the sounds of it!

I didn’t enjoy this at all and because of it I didn’t finish it

Beautiful, strange short stories. Can't wait to see what she writes next.

On a remote and unforgiving island lies a village unlike any other: Neverness, Folk is a collection of tales circling the lives of one generation, those coming of age. Every year they gather, while the girls shoot their arrows and the boys hunt them out. In other tales a girl is snatched by a water bull and dragged to his lair, a babe is born with a wing for an arm and children ask their fortunes of an oracle ox. While the villagers live out their own tales, enchantment always lurks, blighting and blessing in equal measure.

Judging from the blurb this was so far up my street it’s practically my house!I was champing at the bit to read it! But then I put it down halfway through and just couldn’t talk myself into picking it up again.

Gilbert builds a sinister atmosphere better than most, every tale I read was dark and dank with a primitive sinuousness. However, the characters were too primitive, each seemed to be out only for themselves – believable, as they were teens, but tedious to read. Characters that care only for themselves are difficult to care for.

Gilbert’s skills as a writer means I will look at whatever she produces next, but I’m not so sure I would jump up and snatch it so quickly.

3 Bites

I really liked Folk, I mean I have no idea what was going on most of the time, but I really liked it all the same. Contrary to my initial impression that it was a novel, Folk was instead a series of vaguely connected short stories about the mysterious going-ons on the island of Neverness - a man with a wing for an arm, a maiden being carried away by a water-bull, and a woman who wraps her newborn in a blanket of mist…
Neverness is a world in which the stories told in the glow of nightlights are a reality. They are tales steeped in fairytales, folklore, legend and old wives’ tale, and Zoe Gilbert managed to evoke an incredibly successful, over-arching atmosphere that really emphasised the aspects of the tales that were mystical and otherworldly.
Although I must point out that, as with any other short story collection, I feel as though some worked better than others. Long Have I Lain Beside the Water, Veryln’s Blessings and Tether were particular standouts - they were dark, ominous, human and encompassed everything I needed from a collection such as this. Others (A Winter Guest, for instance) were needless and out-of-place, and honestly, I feel as though it would have been a far stronger collection if they had been left out entirely.
Overall, I was glad for the experience and the short visit to the island of Neverness but, thanks to varying story content quality, Folk definitely fell middle-of-the-line for me.

Fantasy is my jam, and so are short story collections. When you combine the two you basically get a collection of awesome fairy tales, the kind of thing that allows you to steal away into a completely different world for some beautiful escapism. I have chased these types of books down relatively successfully, but clearly the Fates think I haven't done well enough because suddenly Folk appeared on my path. And God was it good! And how beautiful is that cover? Thanks to Bloomsbury Circus and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As I said, both Fantasy and short stories are my thing. My love for them started when I was very young. In my childhood home we had a shelf in the bookcase dedicated purely to fairy tales from all across the world. One of my favourite things to do was pick a book at random from this shelf and sink away into all these different stories that were somehow connected yet all independent as well. There is a magic to fairy tales that doesn't just come back to the actual magic in them. Rather, their magic lies in how they expand the mind, how they cast a different light on old issues, how they mix sweetness with bitterness and beauty with horror. Fairy tales don't explain themselves, at least not the original ones. There are morals there, sure, but you will have to find those for yourself. There is a sense of the ancient to them which nothing else really matches. Where do these stories come from? What inspired them and how do they still inspire? Because of their mysterious origins, fairy tales can belong to anyone and everyone.

In Folk, Zoe Gilbert tells us the stories of Neverness, a mysterious village on a remote island. Each story is told by a different character in the village. These characters come from all ages, different parts of the village and island and even from the different generations living there. This approach allows for Folk to create a sense of connection and tradition without having to info-dump the reader. Characters mentioned casually in one story will become the narrators of another. Events that take place in the foreground in one tale will be referenced in a later tale. Although this is perhaps confusing initially, it really pays off later on in the stories. There is no world-building as such, as one might expect. How did the island come about? Why do the people in Neverness seem so touched by magic? Where do their traditions come from? There are no clear answers to these questions, rather the stories just exist as they are, to be enjoyed as they are. I loved this about them because it allows you to sink into the beauty of each separate story without demanding more from it.

Zoe Gilbert's writing is beautiful. From the very first story she manages to infuse her writing with a sense of suspense , danger and beauty. As the reader gets accustomed to Neverness and its particular peculiarities, Gilbert consistently manages to conjure up a sense of magic and mystery. She moves seamlessly across the village and island, describing its stunning and powerful nature and the effects it has on the island's inhabitants. Her characters are sparsely but carefully drawn. You never get tired of her characters as she keeps their characterisation just subtle enough to make the reader think there must be more, to want to dig deeper. I'm wowed by the fact this is Gilbert's first fiction book, because the deftness with which she writes is masterful. Folk is also beautifully illustrated by Isobel Simonds, the author's aunt. They feel as ancient as the stories and are an incredible addition to the book. I can't wait to get my hands on a hard copy of this book in order to see how the illustrations and stories interplay.

I absolutely adored Folk. From the first story I was drawn in by Gilbert's mysterious island and its magical inhabitants. The stories are beautifully human despite the enchantment hovering just below their surface. I can't wait to read more from Zoe Gilbert! I'd recommend this to anyone interested in Short Stories and Magical Realism.

I can still feel a lingering hum of the magic spun by this beautiful novel. I don't think I've been held captivate by a book quite like this before. Singing its praises does not seem enough to convey how touched I am by Folk. If you, dear reader, are a lover of mythology, fairy tales, folklore and the like, this book is for you.

"What's Folk?" you may ask. It's a compilation of story vignettes focusing on the inhabitants of the island Neverness. They seem like people from the south of England, Wales or even Ireland. From a time when life was far simpler and people understood nature and lived in harmony with it. Possibly the 1700-1800s? Just a guess, mind. Anyway, we witness the events that unfold in the lives of the islanders as they live, love, feel jealousy, spite and fear and make their way in a rich world filled with happenings beyond our reckoning. I am working hard to keep from using the word 'magic' again but that really is the best word to describe the wonder and beauty found in the pages of this book. I don't want to give anything away but can say that the fantasy elements of Folk are so sweetly rendered as to break the heart. The emotional spectrum is wide and the lessons are many. This is a book to be cherished and shared. Best read by the hearth on a chilly winters night, I say!